USA Softball improves

Salem, VA---The USA Softball Women’s National Team won its 12th game in the last 14 days with a 6-0 win over the Salem All-Stars tonight in front of 3,000 fans at the James Moyer Softball Complex. With the win the U.S. improves to 39-0 and pushes its pre-Olympic tour win streak to 153-games dating back to May 3, 1996.

U.S. starting pitcher Jennie Finch (LaMirada, CA) improved to 12-0 on the ‘Aiming for Athens’ tour after allowing just one hit in six innings. She also struck out 11 while walking three. Lori Harrigan (Las Vegas, NV) pitched the final inning of the game and fanned two of the three batters she faced.

A walk to Leah O’Brien-Amico combined with two fielding errors by the Salem All-Stars put the U.S. in scoring position. Jenny Topping (Whittier, CA) capitalized on the All-Stars miscues with a single to left field to score Amico.
A solid pitching performance by Georgia Tech pitcher Jessica Sallinger shutout the U.S. for the next two innings but ran into trouble in the fourth. Lovie Jung (Westminster, CA) led off with a walk, stole second and scored on a triple by Amanda Freed (Cypress, CA). A double by Jessica Mendoza (Camarillo, CA) plated Freed and a sacrifice bunt by Laura Berg (Santa Fe Springs, CA) placed Mendoza on third. After a walk to Natasha Watley (Irvine, CA), Amico grounded out to first base to score Mendoza to push the U.S. lead to 4-0.

Angela Tincher, a high school senior from James River High School, relieved Sallinger in the fifth allowing two runs on two hits. Topping homered to right field and Jung scored on a groundout by Mendoza for the final run of the game.

Mendoza and Topping each contributed two RBI, while Topping and Freed both posted two hits. This marks only the 16th game that has gone all seven innings during the tour. 20 of the 23 other games were halted in the fifth inning due to the mercy rule.

The ‘Aiming for Athens’ tour rolls on as the USA Softball Women’s National Team travels to Topeka, KS for a game on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. at Hummer Sports Park.